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As a stand-up comedian and actor, Kevin James built a dual career out of his own homegrown reality. With a tall, burly build and innate likeability, James planted his roots firmly in performing at a young age. Based upon his Long Island life and upbringing, James' material soon hit a familiar chord with working class viewers who stayed with his lengthy CBS series "The King of Queens" (1998-2007) for the long haul. Finding a second home onscreen in films expanded his persona into high-visibility comedies such as "Hitch" (2005) and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" (2007), but broke through as an above-the-title star with the surprise smash "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (2009). Enjoying his tenure at a new level of stardom, James fit right in with Adam Sandler and his "SNL" crew in the comedy "Grown Ups" (2010) and wrote and produced more films for himself, including "Zookeeper" (2011), "Here Comes the Boom" (2012) and "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2" (2015). Although none of those films were critical successes, the likable and talented James continued to make the most of his success. His return to series television, "Kevin Can Wait" (CBS 2016- ), found the funnyman returning to what had made him most successful.Originally born Kevin George Knipfing on April 26, 1965 in Mineola, NY, his family soon settled in Stony Brook, NY, where his father Joe, an insurance salesman, and mother Janet, who worked for a chiropractor, raised him and two siblings. James enjoyed a quiet childhood, developing into a serious athlete as he got older. Attending Ward Melville High School, he wrestled on the school team alongside future WWF wrestler Mick Foley before becoming a football running back in his senior year. After his 1983 graduation, he headed upstate to study sports management and play football as a fullback at the State University of New York at Cortland. Several credits shy of graduation, a disinterested James dropped out of college and spent his summer of 1986 looking for a life beyond sports - initially finding work painting houses, selling gym memberships and finally as a personal trainer. He auditioned for a comedic role in a play at a small theater in Shoreham-Wading and landed the part. Not surprisingly, he fell in love with performing. His brother had formed an improvisational comedy group, so James joined up. After performing all across Long Island, he was prompted to officially adopt James as his surname, while his brother became Gary Valentine.In 1989, James segued into stand-up comedy, making his comedy debut at the East Side Comedy Club and garnering a wildly enthusiastic reception that was nowhere to be found in his second performance a night later. Despite the blow, he was ready to make a career of it. James took a regular gig working at a warehouse that stocked industrial equipment and began crafting a comedy act in the multitude of local clubs available to the Long Island scene, as well as in New York City. Working out material about his local life and upbringing, he befriended a like-minded comedian, Ray Romano, and the two bonded; often supporting each other emotionally during their struggling years. As his material accumulated, James made it onto "Star Search" (NBC, 1983-2004) and, in 1992, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (NBC, 1992- ) - the holy grail of stand-up television bookings.In Montreal for the "Just for Laughs" festival in 1996, James made a strong showing, and his appearance led to a development deal with NBC, which in turn led to an introduction to producer Michael Weithorn. That year, while in Los Angeles going over his options, he found himself spending a lot of time with Romano again while the two were struggling to audition for parts and sharing their professional woes. James became frustrated as his ties with NBC stagnated, but Romano's acting career took off, after inking a sitcom deal with David Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants. This collaboration led to Romano's own sitcom, the insanely successf